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Somerset & Dorset
Family History Society

The SDFHS Blog

Reflections on a Family History Journey

In spring this year Kerri Curtis made the long journey from Tasmania to the south-west of England, tracing the history of her family back to villages in Somerset and Dorset It was my mother who inspired in me an avid interest in our family history When I was a child, she told me stories about her father’s migration to Australia from Wales in the 1920s The rest of his family – mother, father, sister and brothers, had followed a few years later, settling in a small country town in New South...
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The Sherborne Pageant of 1905

In 1905, to mark the 1,200th anniversary of the founding of the town of Sherborne by Bishop St Aldhelm in 705, the local Church Council decided to mark the event with a historical pageant which, during the planning, grew in size to involve 900 local people and was staged in the grounds of Sherborne’s ruined 12th Century castle A team of researchers at King’s College, London is currently studying historical pageants for a major AHRC-funded Research Project and on Saturday 4 July Dr Tom...
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Tracking down John Deacon – basketmaker in Bristol

Barbara Elsmore is researching the Deacon family of basketmakers  and here describes how enlisting the help of other SDFHS members helped her to track down a missing son On Saturday 16 May Barbara will be talking in Sherborne about basketmaking as an occupation in the first of our occasional series of events What did your Ancestors Do The other speaker will be John Damon on 'Families in the Utilities': full details I have just read Patricia Spencer's excellent article in the latest Greenwood...
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Preview of the May ‘Greenwood Tree’

We have experienced a little local difficulty with the production of the May edition of The Greenwood Tree, and we apologise if its delivery is slightly later than usual The printers we have used for over 20 years, FWB Printing Ltd of Wincanton, has ceased trading, and been replaced with a new company, Aurora We wish them success and hope to continue with them the excellent collaboration which we had with FWB The centenary of the outbreak of the First World War was rightly given great...
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